THE BROWN RAT 



the coat pocket. A female albino Rat wandered 

 away one day, and was found a week later in an 

 outhouse. To my surprise it subsequently gave 

 birth to nine young ones, four of which were the 

 normal greyish-brown, and the other five were pure 

 white. It had evidently cohabited with a wild 

 Brown Rat after it escaped. When albino Rats 

 are mated, the fur of the progeny is always pure 

 white, and the eyes are pink. Although I have 

 bred these rats for eight years at the Port Elizabeth 

 Museum, I have never had a single instance of even 

 a slight tendency to reversion to the normal grey 

 of their original ancestors. When the Brown Rats 

 increase unduly in numbers and food becomes 

 scarce, they assemble by common consent and 

 migrate, often in large numbers, usually during the 

 hours of darkness. Should a river bar their way, 

 they plunge boldly into the water and swim across. 

 Reaching a land of plenty, they scatter and seek out 

 suitable homes. 



It is well known that rats when brought to bay 

 will turn upon dogs and men, and attack them in a 

 most determined manner. 



In the eighteenth century when prisoners were 

 usually confined in dark, loathsome dungeons, the 

 famished rats would swarm out and attack them ; 

 and many instances are on record of the Warder in 

 his morning round, finding, instead of a prisoner, 

 a white skeleton picked clean by the rats during 

 the night. A case is related of a man, who entered 



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